Israel knows it can't 'burn' Putin, 'but our hearts are with Ukraine' – Joel Rosenberg tells Newsmax

Few people believed the invasion of Ukraine was going to happen – and it cost them a ticket to safety. 

That’s what Joel Rosenberg, editor-in-chief of ALL ISRAEL NEWS, told Daniel Cohen in an interview on Newsmax on Monday as he unpacked the crisis unfolding in Eastern Europe.

Now, there are approximately half a million refugees in what is shaping up to be one of Europe’s worst humanitarian disasters in recent history.

But Israeli officials have been warning Israelis in Ukraine for the last several weeks to return to Israel before it was too late.

“Prime Minister [Naftali] Bennett and our Foreign Minister Yair Lapid have been pressing for weeks for all Israelis to leave,” Rosenberg said. “And you’re right – 8,000 Israelis, they just didn’t believe that this invasion was going to happen.”

“Most Ukrainians didn’t really think it was going to happen. Certainly, the Israelis didn’t. They didn’t leave,” Rosenberg said.

Now, the airports are closed and several humanitarian organizations – both Jewish and Christian alike – are scrambling to help fleeing civilians, including an estimated 200,000 Jews, many of whom want to come to Israel. 

“It’s a huge logistical challenge right now, especially with the fighting so fierce,” Rosenberg said.

In fact, Israel is expecting some 10,000 Ukrainian citizens to apply for aliyah (immigration to Israel) in the coming days.

“I think the call has gone out to many pro-Israel Christian organizations to work closely with the Israeli government – with the Jewish Agency – which is an agency that predated the actual State of Israel when it was prophetically reborn in 1948. And Christians are responding.” 

“Right now the money is needed, but the logistics are needed even more. It's not exactly clear at this hour how they're all going to get out, but again, you have to sort of prepare. And once that door opens, we'll start moving people,” Rosenberg said.

Israel is also walking a tightrope of diplomacy. Due to Russia’s military presence in Syria – on Israel’s northern border – the Jewish state has yet to officially condemn Moscow’s military actions.

“Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is walking a very fine line – and he’s getting criticism from both sides – meaning Israel is a small country and it has a lot of need to have a strong... at least working relationship, with Putin – not because we love Putin – we think he’s a thug and a dictator and a godfather, but he does control the airspace in Syria,” Rosenberg noted. “He does have ground forces in Syria, and he is Iran's closest ally.”

“So 'we can’t burn him,' is the theory in Jerusalem – and yet, really, our hearts are with Ukraine,” he said.